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Set during the days of the Roman Empire, a simple village is preparing for the wedding of their king and queen. Suddenly, it is raided by Roman troops, and most of the people are whisked off to be slaves or killed. The queen, Amathea, (Lana Clarkson), and two of her best female warriors survive the attack and set off to liberate Amathea's sister (Dawn Dunlap) (who had been raped in the raid and is set to become the Roman centurion's concubine) and king Argan (who is sent to the gladiator arena).

Traveling a river, the band of women gradually catch up to slower-moving elements of the Roman raiding party, killing the soldiers. Searching the soldier's belongings, they find out where the raiding party was heading and follow, eventually arriving at the Roman city. Donning disguises, each woman searches on her own and is eventually captured.

One female warrior (Susana Traverso) is killed while trying to escape from the commander's dungeon. Another (Katt Shea) is raped and left for dead in an alley by Roman soldiers, and the queen (Clarkson) is captured and sent to a torture chamber. There, she is stripped topless and mercilessly tortured on a rack. The contraption simultaneously pierces her bare breast with a sharp metal glove while painfully stretching her whenever she moves. Eventually her torturer (Tony Middleton) rapes her, which results in Amathea turning the tables on him and escaping.

Rescued by the local rebel underground after her ordeal, Amathea and the warrior woman left for dead decide to join the rebel movement, and together they seek vengeance for the citizens, and liberation of the slaves.

A follow-on film, Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back was billed as a sequel, when in actuality neither the plot nor the characters had anything to do with the original Barbarian Queen film, other than casting Lana Clarkson in the title role, and having a scene where her character is stretched out naked on a rack and slowly tortured to death.